Internet & Phone Safety for Parents to Help Kids

Provide safety rules and guidelines for your child's cell phone use.

Address phone and internet security with your children on a daily basis. Express to them the dangers of being contacted by strangers. Sign a contract with your children that specifically states what is allowed and what is not allowed.

Safety Rules and Guidelines

Draft a child-friendly contract that outlines safety rules and guidelines. No child's full name, address, home phone, cell phone, school name or city name should be given out over a cell phone or the internet.

Online Predators

Explain these security measures as a matter of life and death. Use the internet as a resource. Sit with your children and search sex offenders online. Show them the red dots that represent the registered sex offenders on every block. Link the sex offenders' presence in your city to their presence on the internet.

Internet Dangers

Establish rules about when and where the internet is to be used. Warn your children that they are not to be online when at a friend's house to avoid any unforeseen dangers.

Time Limits

Set time limits on cell phone and internet usage. Restrict cell phone use after 10 pm and internet use after midnight. Do not allow your child to change the house rules.

Safety Checks

Ask your children who they talk to or what sites they visit. Remind them that as long as they are on the phone or internet, you will be checking to make sure they are safe at all times.

References

• National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: Safety Rules

Resources

• FBI: Internet Safety